Wow, Tryptophan Making You Sleepy Is A Big Fat Lie

So says HP!

www.huffingtonpost.com...

The article claims that the amino tryptophan, relatively abundant in turkey, like milk, can only make one sleepy if eaten on a relatively empty stomach.

And proposed that the sleepiness often associated with indulging in a big Thanksgiving day meal is due to a full belly. I feel sleepy right now even though I just indulged in the usual raw vegan fare.

Interestingly enough, most of the poultry listed here, especially duck and quail which have even more tryptophan than turkey, are within 100mg of each other anyways.

nutritiondata.self.com...

What do you guys think given facts on hand?

I studied this a while back. The sleepiness can occur if you eat certain other foods. One of the metabolites is tryptamine if the right foods/condiments are eaten. It can change the uptake or creation of brain chemicals and make you sleepy. It can even get you a little high.

If I wasn't tired I'd look up the exact metabolic processes, which levels of brain chemicals are elevated to cause tiredness, and the companion foods that would have to be consumed to cause tiredness. I used to know that, it may just be that I am tired.

The guy who wrote the article is not taking everything into consideration.

You need an intake of tryptophan to make serotonin in your brain (a feel-good chemical) but you need a bit of a surplus of it to make melatonin, the sleepy chemical.

The trouble is, in a meal with mixed amino acid content, they all have to get through the blood-brain barrier and others will too including the 'wake up' and 'repair' amino acids.

Yes, there's a lot of tryptophan in a turkey dinner but the carbohydrate load is far more psychoactive leading to sleepiness. I notice that the older I get (or the more sleep deprived when younger), the more carbs make me sleepy, especially in the mid afternoon time frame and when caffeine levels are low. Caffeine blocks the melatonin sleepy effect quite nicely, which is why the entire world is addicted to it.

If you're having trouble sleeping regularly, I recommend trying 5-HTP; it's chemically closer to serotonin and works very well to raise serotonin levels in the brain; the side effect is, it's a slight but effective anti-depressant without any side effects like the commercial antidepressant crap they try to sell us.

probably has more to do with the amount one consumes verses the content. i had prime rib yesterday and felt just as sleepy as i do if i eat turkey, key being i ate too much.

Every time that I eat, no matter what it is; I get tired. It's just the way my body works. I have never found that one food vs. another shows different effects.

Each persons' body reacts differently but it probably has a lot to do with the "Big Feast" that people over-indulge.

A_L

Well the thanksgiving dinner is usually an enormous feast containing copious amounts of proteins, sugars, fats and carbs. I would imagine the digestion of every different type takes its toll on the body and slows a few other symbiotic processes down. Thus making a person sleepy. Eating an enormous amount of anything will probably make anyone tired or indolent.

I know eating an abundance of carbs will do the same thing.

As for the chemical, tryptophan, it probably still adds to the mix.